I am currently reading Paul Allen’s Idea Man. The book provides a very interesting look at the formation of Microsoft. Don’t worry I am not going to spoil it for others in terms of the story line. I will say that it does paint a very different picture about Microsoft and in particular Bill Gates, to what I expected.
One thing that the book has brought home to me, is the tremendous impact Microsoft has on the computer industry. Whether you want to admit it or not, most users use at least one Microsoft product per day. Microsoft Office which contains Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook is arguably the standard for all desktop office software. There are really no real competitors that one can compare the software to in my opinion. There are several million copies of the software used on a daily basis all across the world.
With the above in mind, I thought I would share some shortcut keys for Microsoft products:
Microsoft Windows system key combinations:
- F1: Help
- CTRL+ESC: Open Start menu
- ALT+TAB: Switch between open programs
- ALT+F4: Quit program
- SHIFT+DELETE: Delete item permanently
- Windows Logo+L: Lock the computer (without using CTRL+ALT+DELETE)
Microsoft Windows program key combinations:
- CTRL+C: Copy
- CTRL+X: Cut
- CTRL+V: Paste
- CTRL+Z: Undo
- CTRL+B: Bold
- CTRL+U: Underline
- CTRL+I: Italic
General keyboard-only commands:
- F1: Starts Windows Help
- F10: Activates menu bar options
- SHIFT+F10 Opens a shortcut menu for the selected item (this is the same as right-clicking an object
- CTRL+ESC: Opens the Start menu (use the ARROW keys to select an item)
- CTRL+ESC or ESC: Selects the Start button (press TAB to select the taskbar, or press SHIFT+F10 for a context menu)
- CTRL+SHIFT+ESC: Opens Windows Task Manager
- ALT+DOWN ARROW: Opens a drop-down list box
- ALT+TAB: Switch to another running program (hold down the ALT key and then press the TAB key to view the task-switching window)
- SHIFT: Press and hold down the SHIFT key while you insert a CD-ROM to bypass the automatic-run feature
- ALT+SPACE: Displays the main window’s System menu (from the System menu, you can restore, move, resize, minimize, maximize, or close the window)
- ALT+- (ALT+hyphen): Displays the Multiple Document Interface (MDI) child window’s System menu (from the MDI child window’s System menu, you can restore, move, resize, minimize, maximize, or close the child window)
- CTRL+TAB: Switch to the next child window of a Multiple Document Interface (MDI) program
- ALT+underlined letter in menu: Opens the menu
- ALT+F4: Closes the current window
- CTRL+F4: Closes the current Multiple Document Interface (MDI) window
- ALT+F6: Switch between multiple windows in the same program (for example, when the Notepad Find dialog box is displayed, ALT+F6 switches between the Find dialog box and the main Notepad window)
I recommend that you copy and paste the various shortcuts into a document to serve as a help guide. Do not worry, there is no exam on them but with some practice and constant usage the shortcuts will become second nature to you. So what are you waiting for, make your Microsoft experience even better with these tips.
